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I would argue that what Java/Swing set out to do in the 1990's was done already. You can ship Swing apps and make lots of money selling them to lots of people -

I would argue that what Java/Swing set out to do in the 1990's was done already. You can ship Swing apps and make lots of money selling them to lots of people - JetBrains being a case in point. You don't get many people starting new projects that way (and Swing has been replaced by JFX anyway), but this seems more related to fashion than the merits of the various technologies. The energy and "momentum" in the web community is something that has been discussed extensively on HN and elsewhere, so I won't comment on that. Suffice it to say that motion is not always the same thing as progress.

blub 10y ago
Let's be fair and admit that the typical Java app doesn't have all the features of a modern Electron app. For instance, I downloaded Atom and after starting it, it wanted to connect to atom.io and then Google analytics. Now Google not only knows which web pages one visits, but also which apps one uses. Electron is win/win - for web developers and Google, of course.
- sievebrain 10y ago
  Hah. In fairness though, most apps do want to report back usage stats and other telemetry these days. That doesn't sound entirely unreasonable.... though it's conventional for desktop apps to ask first (perhaps one reason people developers like web apps, the social conventions are different)
  - blub 10y ago
    It is not allowed in the EU to gather data without informing the user and (in some cases) requiring opt-in. I think this is a very sane decision, even if it makes developers uncomfortable, because it is a privacy issue. It is not usual to gather telemetry on the desktop, with perhaps the exception of some AppStore apps. Of course now that Microsoft got greedy and web developers are starting to develop desktop apps, we might see a different trend.
    - matt4077 10y ago
      That depends on the data. I believe Atom uses the analytics privacy feature that deletes the last digits of the IP. That way it doesn't fall under the privacy directive.

blub 10y ago

Let's be fair and admit that the typical Java app doesn't have all the features of a modern Electron app. For instance, I downloaded Atom and after starting it, it wanted to connect to atom.io and then Google analytics. Now Google not only knows which web pages one visits, but also which apps one uses. Electron is win/win - for web developers and Google, of course.

sievebrain 10y ago
Hah. In fairness though, most apps do want to report back usage stats and other telemetry these days. That doesn't sound entirely unreasonable.... though it's conventional for desktop apps to ask first (perhaps one reason people developers like web apps, the social conventions are different)
- blub 10y ago
  It is not allowed in the EU to gather data without informing the user and (in some cases) requiring opt-in. I think this is a very sane decision, even if it makes developers uncomfortable, because it is a privacy issue. It is not usual to gather telemetry on the desktop, with perhaps the exception of some AppStore apps. Of course now that Microsoft got greedy and web developers are starting to develop desktop apps, we might see a different trend.
  - matt4077 10y ago
    That depends on the data. I believe Atom uses the analytics privacy feature that deletes the last digits of the IP. That way it doesn't fall under the privacy directive.